SPIRITUAL VITAMIN DEVOTIONAL

"...Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
~James 1:4

Do you face struggles and challenges head on -- or avoid them at all costs? Even to your own detriment? Why does it sometimes seem easier to run from problems than to persevere? Let's face it. It's painful. We run from pain...sometimes into an even more painful situation. Yet, in God's word we are told to let perseverance finish its work. The Greek for perseverance means "hopeful endurance" and work means "to toil". Let me tell you, persevering takes hard work!

When working out, in order to enlarge a muscle, you have to increase or endure a heavier weight. This is so that the muscle will tear and rebuild even bigger and stronger. Likewise, working through pain and suffering, produces perseverance or endurance, which produces character which produces hope. Hope comes from knowing that God was with you through the difficult times, that you survived and are stronger for it. It is only through working through the pain that we become mature and complete.

If persevering makes us mature and complete then running away would makes us immature and incomplete! Instead of running from a particular situation or problem, we must learn to endure and embrace it, so that we can gain the wisdom and insight that we need to work through it. When we spend all of our energy trying to avoid or run from the problem, we wear ourselves down. Instead, let perseverance finish its work. Focus your energy on working through the situation. Learn the valuable lessons that God wants to teach you so that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing...You can't have a testimony without a test and lots of moaning, and you can't have a message without a mess to clean up!

Prayer:
Father, help me not to run from the pain but to run to You. Help me to embrace the painful situation with hope knowing that you are with me every step of the way. Thank you for the painful times in my life that teach me to persevere and endure that I may be the person you have designed me to be...mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Copyright © 2001-2009 Deborah Collins.

Return to Archives